Invisible Tears
by saccharine snow
Summary: Honda is disappointed that he has to spend the week babysitting his nephew, but things end up taking a very unexpected turn... Shounen ai.
1. Chapter 1

(A/N: Alright, before reading on, I really have to say a few things. And if you don't read this and end up not liking my fic for whatever reason, it's your own fault!

First off, yes, this fic deals with self mutilation. And I know it's a touchy subject and even if you don't like that kind of thing in a fic, PLEASE still give this a chance. That's really not what this whole fic is about. I want to get something straight right now: there will be no gory details, emo-ness, and other things you probably think of when you think of cutting. So forget the stupid generalizations for just a second. This fanfiction is told from a different POV and for the most part will much more lighthearted than I'm sure everyone is expecting.

Secondly, the fic generally has a serious tone to it, but the first two chapters are rather humorous. So even if you can't possibly read about what's in here, at least give the first two chapters a chance. I really didn't write this for nothing.

And just so no one is confused, Honda has a nephew named Georgie. He appears early in the manga, I believe it's in volume 4. And most of the time he was seen smashing his face in Anzu's boobs.)

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Warnings: Nothing yet.

* * *

Chapter 1

The early morning sun poured generously through the clear glass windows that lined the walls of room 2-B at Domino High School, which was greatly welcomed by all of the students. Not just because the brilliant rays were something that allowed the students to take their minds off all the busyness and frustration that high school brought along with it, but also because the chill of autumn was beginning to set in, so everyone was grateful for the little extra warmth. Everyone, it would seem, except for the tall, brunette teenager known as Honda Hiroto, who was sitting in his chair with his torso sprawled out across the surface of his desk and his face pressed firmly into the crook of his arm. He stayed in that position and refused to move, not really seeming to care that three of his friends, Jounouchi Katsuya, Mutou Yuugi, and Mazaki Anzu, were standing in a semicircle around his desk, impatiently waiting for him to get over his problem so he wouldn't put a damper on such a perfectly good day.

"I'm dead!" Honda moaned, which ended up as a soft muffling sound considering that his face was smashed into the arm of his blue uniform.

Jounouchi crossed his arms and scowled down at his friend. "Jeez, Honda, you whine too much," he said, quickly becoming annoyed with Honda's behavior. "Suck it up! Come on, man, you're acting like this is some really big thing."

Honda slowly slid his arm away from his face and let it fall limply at his side. He shifted his hazel eyes up to Jounouchi, but still kept his head on the top of his desk.

"I'm dead," he repeated, this time a little slower, hoping that he would be able to get his point to fully sink into Jounouchi's mind. The only thing it did, though, was succeed in making the blonde even more frustrated.

"I don't wanna deal with this all day, Honda," Jounouchi growled threateningly, "So you better knock it off before lunch or I'll-"

"I'm sure it won't be that bad, Honda-kun," Yuugi interrupted, trying his best to be comforting even though it appeared from the look on Honda's face that his efforts were fruitless. It was obvious that they were getting nowhere. No matter what anyone said, Honda was going to sulk around all day, meaning that the beautiful day that awaited them just outside the brick building of Domino High would most definitely go to waste.

"Yuugi's right," Anzu agreed. "It's just babysitting. You've done it before, right?"

Honda raised his head a few inches from his desk. "Well, yeah, but that was only for a few hours. This time neesan is going to be gone for a whole _week_," he said, emphasizing the last word as if it meant all of eternity rather than just seven days. "The weather is about to get really crappy anyway. Honestly, who goes on vacation at this time of year?"

"Obviously your sister does," Jounouchi answered with a shrug that was anything but compassionate, so Yuugi decided to do what Jounouchi wouldn't.

"But you said that your sister was only going to be gone for a week, right Honda-kun? That's not that long," Yuugi offered hopefully.

Honda glanced up at Yuugi, but there was still the same sullen look in his eyes. "The longest I've ever babysat Georgie for was for a day. And I was practically dead by the time he got picked up. If I can barely take even one day, how am I supposed to handle him for a whole week? That kid's a little demon!"

"Well, I'm not going to argue with you there," Jounouchi said with a smirk, and neither Yuugi nor Anzu made any effort whatsoever to disagree.

Honda looked back down at his desk and frowned. "Yeah, thanks for the support," he muttered sarcastically.

"Hey, lighten up, Honda, I was just joking," Jounouchi said, walking over to his friend and giving him a quick nudge in the shoulder with his elbow. "Besides, it won't be that bad because we'll all help you out," he added, suddenly going from irritated to supportive without any indication. But this didn't surprise anyone, since Jounouchi had a tendency to do that sort of thing when he was around Honda. The spike-haired boy seemed to be able to influence his best friend's mood more than anyone else ever could.

"Hey, wait, I didn't agree to anything like that," Anzu said uneasily, taking a step backwards as if Jounouchi had suggested that they all try to learn how to fly by jumping off the school building.

Yuugi cocked his head to the side. "What's wrong, Anzu?" he asked, puzzled as to why his friend was acting so strangely all of a sudden, especially since she usually jumped at the chance to help someone in need.

"Well, unless Georgie completely flipped his attitude around since the last time we saw him, then you can count me out," she replied. Memories from the time when she first had the "pleasure" to meet Georgie seeped into her thoughts and she grimaced. She shook her head a few times in an effort to relieve her mind from the sudden unwanted reminiscence before saying, "That kid seems to have a bad habit of putting his face and hands where they don't belong."

Honda laughed slightly, which was the first lighthearted thing that he had done all day. Jounouchi and Yuugi looked at each other and smiled, hoping that their friend's despondent mood was finally starting to clear up.

"That was kind of a long time ago, Anzu. Now Georgie's more destructive than perverted," he said. "Even though that's probably worse for me."

Anzu thought about her options for a moment before shaking her head again. "No offense, Honda, but I still don't think I can take your word for it. Even if he has changed, I doubt it would be by very much. I don't want his grabby little fingers within ten feet of me."

"Okay…then I guess Anzu's out," Jounouchi said, "But me and Yuugi will still give you a hand, right, Yuuge?"

"Well, actually, Jounouchi-kun, I can't do anything this weekend. Jiichan is going to be gone for a few days and I have to watch the game shop for him," Yuugi replied with a disappointed frown. "I guess if you guys really need help, you could bring Georgie over to the shop, but if he's as destructive as Honda-kun says…"

"That's okay, Yuugi, I think Jounouchi and I can handle him," Honda said quickly, imagining all the damages that would be caused if his rambunctious nephew got his hands on anything that was in the Kame Game Shop. He was supposed to be earning money for this job, and he didn't want to spend it on replacements for all the torn cards, broken games, and anything else that he would be responsible for if he decided to take Georgie by Yuugi's house.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me, buddy," Jounouchi announced, nudging Honda in the shoulder again.

Honda forced a weak smile, suddenly realizing that having Jounouchi over as help might not be that generous of an offer after all. The carefree blonde may have had good intentions, but Honda was unsure of what might happen when he was put in charge of another human life. And if Jounouchi happened to slip and say one of the curse words that he was oh so very fond of, Honda would never hear the end of it. He couldn't even fathom what his sister would do to him if Georgie told her "Go to hell" or "Suck my dick."

"So, when's the kid coming over?" Jounouchi asked.

Honda sighed quietly. "Tomorrow."

* * *

_Ding Dong_

Honda groaned as the annoying ring of his doorbell echoed through the apartment. He attempted to open his eyes, but when they refused to go any farther than halfway, he gave up and laid his head back onto his pillow.

_Ding Dong _

Once again, Honda attempted to wake himself up, but to no avail. His eyes were too tired and his limbs too heavy that there was no way he was going to haul himself off of his comfortable mattress. Maybe whoever it was who was ringing the doorbell would go away soon.

_Ding Dong Ding Dong_

Honda growled in annoyance and tried to silence the ringing that was now reverberating throughout his head. Didn't these people get it? No one was home. At least not mentally, anyway.

_Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong_

"Argh!" Honda yelled angrily. He wanted to go back to sleep, but there was no way that he'd be able to with the doorbell waking him up every five seconds. He rolled over to look at the digital clock that he kept next to his bed. He squinted his eyes at the tiny illuminated numbers, and it took a second for his eyes to fully focus so he could make out the time, which was 7:00.

"Wha?" Honda said groggily as he stared blankly at the little flashing numbers in front of his face. "Who the hell would be coming over at seven in the morning? Jou doesn't even get up until noon."

He was about to lay his head back down when a sudden thought popped into his mind.

"Seven…that time sounds sort of familiar. But what would I have to do at seven in the morning?" He yawned, but stopped when the rest of his thought fully materialized in his head. "Wait…today is…Sunday…CRAP!"

Honda jumped off of his bed so fast that he knocked the digital clock off his table and sent it crashing to the floor. But Honda didn't stop to pick it up as he continued his dash to the door with the incessant ringing of the doorbell serving as a constant reminder that he'd better get there this very instant, even though he knew that no matter how fast he ran it was already too late.

Honda opened the door to his apartment, bracing himself for the reprimanding he was about to receive in a matter of seconds. Just as he expected, a young woman was standing in the doorway, and judging from the scowl on her face, she definitely wasn't happy. She wore a thin lavender sweater and a long white skirt, which were colors that sharply contrasted with her current mood. In her arms she held a small child, who was dressed in pajamas that resembled some sort of animal. Honda always thought that it looked like a cross between a panda and a dog, but he had never been able to figure out for sure. Next to her rested several bags the size of suitcases, each with their own brightly colored label reading clothes, toys, and other such words.

"It's about time you opened the door," she said impatiently. She eyed Honda, who was wearing only a thin white t-shirt and his blue boxers. "What were you doing? Sleeping? I'm already late as it is and you promised me that you would be up by seven."

"Sorry, neesan," Honda said with a yawn as he felt his eyes suddenly growing heavy again now that all the excitement of his sprint to the door was over. Seven AM was definitely too early to get up on a Sunday.

Honda's sister let out an exasperated sigh. "Hiroto, you really shouldn't be so lazy," she scolded. "I'd thought that you'd at least be awake and possibly even dressed when you had to take on a responsibility, but I guess I was wrong. I bet you stayed up all night and were planning to sleep in until three in the afternoon, weren't you?"

"No," Honda started and was about to continue, but suddenly lost his train of thought and his balance in one split second as the child was thrust into his arms. He took a step backwards and quickly regained his footing just as his sister began picking up the giant bags and tossing them at Honda's feet.

"You should probably know everything that you have to do, but I'll go over it all one more time just to make sure," she said, opening her explanation that would no doubt be filled with information that was obvious, wouldn't be followed, or would be forgotten the second his sister left the doorway. "Now, Georgie already had his breakfast, but he should be ready for lunch at about noon or one and you should feed him dinner at about six. He should probably get to bed around seven or eight, but he might give you a little trouble with that. And make sure you…Hiroto, are you listening to me?" she asked after she noticed that Honda had been nodding his head mechanically with his eyes closed ever since she had begun speaking.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Heard every word," Honda assured her, though she didn't find his words very convincing, especially considering that neither of his eyes were fully open, and one was even slightly more open than the other one.

"You better have," she said tonelessly as she tightened the short brown hair in her ponytail. "Because you know what will happen to you if something happens to my son."

Honda nodded as his sister leaned in the doorway and planted a small kiss on the top of the child's forehead. "Bye bye, Georgie-chan. I'll be back in one week," she said sweetly as she turned and began to make her way down the stairs.

"Bye, neesan," Honda called after her.

"Bye, Hiroto," she called back over her shoulder. "Have fun."

"Oh, yeah, I'll be sure to. It'll be a blast," Honda said sarcastically through clenched teeth once his sister was out of hearing distance. He closed the door with his foot before looking down at the kid in his arms, trying to figure out what to do next. When nothing came to him, he put the child down on the sky blue duffel bag marked "clothes" and slowly left for the living room.

"Hiroto! I get to see you for a whole week!" Georgie squealed excitedly. He slid himself off the duffel bag and followed close behind his uncle into the next room.

Honda grunted in response and fell backwards onto the nearest couch, where he gave into his fatigue and promptly fell asleep. A small smile graced his lips as he relaxed his body and sunk comfortably into the plushy green cushions. Georgie watched his sleeping form for a minute, waiting for something to happen. But when nothing did, the chubby little toddler instantly became irritable.

"Hiroto!" Georgie screamed in the teen's ear, causing Honda to cringe. "I wanna play!"

"No!" Honda whined. These were two of the many reasons why Honda couldn't stand to babysit his nephew: the kid was up way too early in the morning and he was a parasite for attention. With a groan, Honda rolled over so that his back was facing Georgie. He couldn't take this, at least not for a few more hours. "Time for sleep now," he said as coherently as possible as he once again felt sleep begin to overtake him.

Georgie puffed out his cheeks, extremely dissatisfied with how he was being treated at the moment. "But I'm not tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired!" he wailed, stamping his tiny feet against the floor. But since they were covered with the pajamas, the sound was significantly muffled. Besides, that was the least of Honda's concerns. He was more interested in finding a way to shut up the kid's mouth so he could get to work on salvaging what he could of his personally recommended fifteen hours of sleep that he got on weekends. But this was proving to be a much more difficult task than he had previously expected. No matter how much he tried not to pay attention, he was unable to tune out the child's shrill screams. And the more he was ignored, the more Georgie whined.

"I wanna play NOW, Hiroto! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!"

"I can't take this," Honda growled as he curled up closer to the back of the couch. What he wouldn't give for a pillow to shove over his head right about now. That would be sufficient in drowning out at least some of the unwanted noise. But to his surprise, that item was no longer needed as the room unexpectedly fell silent. Honda wasn't about to complain, though, and sunk back into the soft cushions of the couch. Maybe he could actually get a little more sleep after all.

Meanwhile, Georgie had toddled off into the living room and to the pile of large duffel bags that were still strewn across the entrance of the apartment. He grasped his tiny fingers around the zipper of the sky blue bag that Honda had laid him on earlier and pulled, but the annoying little piece of metal wouldn't budge. He yanked on it again and again, becoming more and more frustrated until he finally heard the soft zipping sound and looked to see what kind of contents the big blue bag contained. But an aggravated frown appeared on the boy's face when he pulled out a few t-shirts and realized that the bag held nothing more than his clothing.

Easily losing interest with this bag, he quickly moved on to the next, this one a pale yellow color. It took a few attempts to open this one too, but it was well worth the effort when the zipper slid back and a mess of toys spilled out onto the floor. Georgie smiled deviously as he sifted through the pile before retrieving a rather large plastic giraffe that was more or less about half his size and returned to the living room, where Honda continued to take advantage of the sudden onset of peace and quiet. This quickly came to an end, though, as Georgie arrived at the couch, standing next to his sleeping uncle with the toy giraffe raised above his head.

"Play NOW!" Georgie screamed again as he brought the giraffe down, whacking the object as hard as he could against the back of Honda's skull.

Honda instantly shot up with a yelp, causing Georgie to jump backwards in surprise. "OW!!! Son of a-!!!" Honda yelled loudly as he gripped his hand to the back of his head where he had just been attacked. Honda scowled down at the child in front of him, who was wearing a blank innocent look on his face. But that soon changed as a smile slowly spread across his face.

"Now you're up!" Georgie yelled triumphantly, throwing his plastic weapon behind him and waving his stubby arms in the air. "Now you can play with me!"

"Yeah, how convenient," Honda grumbled as he continued to rub the sore spot on his skull. That was definitely going to hurt for the rest of the week.

"I wanna play a game now!" Georgie ordered, already halfway to his bag of opened toys. "We're going to play with this!"

Honda's eyes narrowed at the spot where Georgie had spilled his toys. The kid hadn't even been there five minutes and there was already a mess to clean up. Honda let out a long sigh as he watched Georgie pick through the array of plastic animals and toy cars.

"This is going to be a _long_ week," he said glumly.

* * *

(A/N: So there you have it. It's funny, right? At least I thought it was funny...

Chappie two will be posted soon. But in the meantime, don't forget to review!

And for anyone who cares, I've also posted four other YGO fics today if you wanna check them out!)


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N: Okay, here's chapter 2, and at this point the fic is still funny, so I hope anyone who reads gets a few laughs out of it. In chapter 3 it starts to turn serious. So after I post that chapter I'll decide if I want to continue it or not.)

Disclaimer: They're not mine. Because why would I be sitting here writing fanfiction if they were?

Warnings: A few swears and plenty of Georgie insanity!

* * *

Chapter 2

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" Honda yelled to the ringing phone as he walked over to pick it up. But he wasn't even five feet away when he felt his foot slide out from under him and he was sent sprawling to the floor, landing flat on his back.

Honda groaned and slowly began to get up. He didn't want to, but the phone wouldn't shut up and he still needed to make lunch. When he had fully risen to a sitting position, he spied the cause of his fall.

"Damn toy car," Honda mumbled as he stood up and quickly surveyed the room around him for any other obstacles in his path that might cause him to do any more damage to his already bruised body. But unfortunately, the rest of the room was far from safe. It was now a little past noon, meaning that Georgie had been there for a little over five hours, and the living room already looked as if a bomb had exploded inside it. Needless to say, the toys that had come from Georgie's duffel bag never returned to it and were now occupying every open space in the room. The carpet, coffee table, couches, chairs, you name it. Honda just hoped that he could get it all cleaned up in time before his parents returned home from work, or else he would have more scolding adults to deal with.

He had been so absorbed in his thoughts, that Honda nearly forgot that the phone had been ringing. He sent a death glare to the toy car behind him as he picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Honda!" a familiar voice greeted cheerfully from the other end of the line. "How's it goin'?"

"Crappy," Honda muttered as he kicked a nearby stuffed animal. It hit the wall with a soft squeak and crumpled to the floor. This act proved to be more amusing than Honda had previously expected, so he proceeded to kick another stuffed animal off to the side. Maybe this is how he could clean up the room.

"Really? That bad?"

"Yeah, Jou, really," Honda answered. "It's been five hours and I already want to die!"

Jounouchi laughed. "Hey, it can't be _that_ bad."

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Honda disagreed as he cradled the phone against his shoulder and walked to the kitchen. If he didn't start making lunch soon, Georgie would get even more restless and then who knows what would end up happening.

Suddenly, Honda heard a slurred stream of yelling followed by a sharp cracking noise and the sound of a door slamming.

"What was that?" Honda asked slowly. Usually when he heard those kinds of noises while he was on the phone with Jounouchi, it wasn't anything good. The noises were also commonly followed by the click of Jounouchi hanging up the phone, but this time his friend was still on the line. He took that for a good sign.

"Um…nah, it was nothing, Honda. Don't worry about it," Jounouchi assured, though his breathing seemed to have gotten a little heavier.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. It's fine. Don't worry," Jounouchi insisted. Almost instantly, his breathing lightened up once again as he changed the subject. "Okay, so what'd he do? Break a window or something?" he asked with another laugh.

Honda set a small pot in the sink and turned on the faucet. When it was a little more than halfway filled, he shut off the water and placed it on the stove. "No, but he's done a lot of other stuff," he said as he turned on the burner. "Out of the five hours he's been here, he's already whacked me over the head with one of his toys, messed up the living room with all his crap, made me play zoo for an hour and I had to be the monkey…"

He paused as he heard a muffled snorting sound coming from the other end of the line.

"That's not funny, Jounouchi," he said flatly. He had gone through all this and now his friend was laughing at him. There were a few more suppressed snickers before the blonde spoke again.

"Sorry, Honda," Jounouchi apologized when he had finally settled down and caught his breath. "But...the monkey?"

"Ha. Ha. Yeah, pretty hilarious, right?" Honda asked bitterly.

"Is that all he did?"

"No," Honda said, and continued his list of all the destructive things that Georgie had done so far. "He also broke one of my favorite CD's and spilled juice on the carpet. And when I finally had enough and put on one of the videotapes that he had brought with him, the second I turned around he went up to the TV and turned up the volume as far as it could go. I'll be lucky if I don't get kicked out of my apartment by the end of the night."

"Man, that sucks."

Honda sighed. "Tell me about it. And I've got a whole week of this," he said as he searched through his pantry and pulled out a package of Ramen.

"Do you want me to come over now? There's nothing really that I have to do today," Jounouchi offered. He paused for a second as if he forgot what he was going to say next. "Well…my homework…but I wasn't planning on doing that anyway."

Honda set the package on the counter and focused his attention to the pot on the stove, impassively watching the little bubbles quickly beginning to rise in the water. He was still unsure about the idea of Jounouchi coming over to help. But he was even more unsure about the commotion he had heard on the other line a minute ago.

"Maybe that wouldn't be so bad," he said finally. "A little extra help couldn't hurt."

"Okay, well then I guess I'll just eat lunch and come over in about twenty-" Jounouchi started to say, but was cut off when he heard a high-pitched yelping noise coming from the other end of the line. A loud yelling came after, and Jounouchi was forced to pull the phone away from his ear so he wouldn't drop it.

"GEORGIE! Stop pulling Blankey's tail!!!"

Honda's yelling was followed by a crashing sound as the brunette quickly turned and bumped into the handle of the pot on the stove, spilling the semi-boiling liquid across the left leg of his pants.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!" Honda cursed, screaming the word so loudly that a middle-aged man who happened to be walking past the building looked up to the open window in shock. He soon continued on his way, shaking his head in disapproval.

The line then grew quiet, except for the small squeaking noises that Honda was making as he struggled to keep himself under control and waited for his leg to stop burning.

Jounouchi waited a few seconds before he decided that it was safe to speak again. "Or maybe I should just come over right now," he said slowly, steadily becoming uncomfortable with Honda's whimpering.

"Yeah. That'd probably be good," Honda said through gritted teeth as he limped over to the freezer to retrieve something cold. Each step he took sent a shock of pain through the top half of his leg, starting with his upper thigh all the way down to a little past his knee.

"Okay. I'll be over in a minute," Jounouchi said hastily as he hung up the phone.

* * *

Jounouchi arrived at the door to Honda's apartment in a little over five minutes, which was the fastest he had ever been able to get there before. He was about to knock, but hesitated when he heard a loud crash come from inside. He lightly pressed his ear to the door and carefully listened, and he was just barely able to make out some yelling, which sounded something along the lines of, "No Georgie! My hair gel is not candy!"

At this point Jounouchi decided that it would be best to knock and let Honda know that he was there. The sooner he could get inside and help Honda out with whatever his nephew was doing, the better. He knocked his hand on the door and waited, but he received no answer. Even though the crashing noises and yelling had stopped, he figured that Honda didn't hear him and tried knocking again. When this attempt received no answer as well, Jounouchi began to get frustrated and jiggled the doorknob. The knob turned a lot farther than expected, and he was surprised to find that the door was unlocked, so with a shrug he pushed it open without a second thought.

"Honda?" Jounouchi called, peeking his head into his living room. Honda had been right, Georgie really did mess up the place, but the blonde never would have imagined the extent of it. Not only were a multitude of toys strewn throughout the room, but so were the child's clothes. Jounouchi scanned the room and raised an eyebrow when his eyes landed on the lamp, which was draped with a tiny pair of toddler underwear.

Jounouchi shook his head. "I don't even wanna know," he said quietly to himself as he took a few steps into the room. It was then that he spotted the child of destruction himself, who was standing in front of the TV with his eyes glued to the screen, still wearing his white panda/dog pajamas. Normally, Jounouchi wouldn't have found this scene to be disturbing, but the TV wasn't even turned on. Jounouchi was about to step backwards and out the door, when the child slowly turned his head. He stared blankly at Jounouchi and for a second the teen half-expected that he was about to be set on fire, or whatever a demonic little child had the power to do to you. But he soon disregarded the thought as stupid and decided to say something friendly. And if the kid did turn out to be possessed by the devil or something along those lines, maybe Jounouchi's amicable attitude would be rewarded with his life being spared. It was just a thought, anyway.

"Hey, little guy," Jounouchi said with a smile, bending forward a little so he would be closer to the child's level. "Where's Honda?"

Georgie continued to stare, causing Jounouchi to let off a nervous laugh.

"You…uh, didn't…kill Honda, did you?" he asked uneasily, his mind slowly going back to his previous thought of Honda's nephew as a demon.

The only response he received was the continuation of the stare as the child's beady eyes bored into him.

"Hey, Jou, you're finally here," Honda said as he emerged from the bathroom, and Jounouchi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of his friend. Honda had a towel in his hands, and after a closer look Jounouchi was able to notice the globs of transparent blue hair gel that was smeared all over Honda's face and neck.

"Yeah, but what the hell happened here?" Jounouchi asked.

"Georgie tried to eat my hair gel and ended up squirting it all over me," Honda answered with a scowl as he wiped the last few drops of gel from his cheek.

Jounouchi pointed to Georgie, who had turned his attention back to the blank TV screen. "Is he alright?"

Honda raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I think so. But he did swallow some of the gel before I was able to take it away from him…"

"Jeez, Honda! You better hope the kid doesn't die!"

Honda shook his head. "Nah. The bottle said the stuff was non-toxic," he replied. "Besides, it made him quiet, so maybe we can actually get something done."

The teens spent the next two hours cleaning up the living room, although after about thirty minutes Jounouchi tired of the chore and retreated to the kitchen where he raided Honda's refrigerator until the brunette found him and forced him to go back to work. Everything was going swimmingly until about an hour into the cleaning, at which point Georgie snapped out of his trance and began to repeat a new word that he had learned that day. Apparently, he had been intently listening when Honda had spilled the water on his leg and screamed out the word "shit."

After another hour, the living room looked decent enough and Georgie had forgotten his newest word. Now that all their tasks of the moment had been accomplished, Honda was so exhausted that he passed out face first on the couch while Jounouchi treated Georgie to a bag of crackers.

"I don't think I'll survive the night," Honda mumbled into the pillow when he heard Jounouchi enter the room. "Tell everyone I said bye, will ya?"

"Don't talk like a dumbass," Jounouchi responded as he plopped himself down on the couch next to Honda. He was about to say something else, but stopped when he saw that Georgie had appeared in front of them, smiling deviously.

"I ate a goldfish!" he announced proudly, placing his hands on his hips.

Honda lifted his head up from the couch. "Huh?"

"I ate a goldfish!" the boy repeated, still smiling like a fiend. "It was yummy!"

Honda raised an eyebrow at his nephew and then looked up at Jounouchi. "What is he talking about?"

"Those crackers I gave him," Jounouchi explained. "They were shaped like goldfish. He really inhaled those things."

Honda nodded and was about to put his face back into the cushions when Georgie clutched his chubby hands to his stomach and groaned.

"Hiroto, I don't feel so good," he said weakly as his cheeks began to puff out.

Honda rolled his eyes. "Well, maybe if you chewed your food-" he began, but his words were interrupted with a gagging sound as Georgie leaned forward and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the living room floor. The two other boys stared down at the mess, but Honda's eyes quickly grew to the size of dinner plates when he saw a familiar object in the middle if the vomit, its orange scales still glinting in the light of the living room lamp.

"My fish!" Honda cried out, suddenly finding his lost energy as he sprang to his feet. Jounouchi grimaced as Honda scooped up the tiny little mess and sprinted off to his room, not paying any attention to the fact that his hand was now covered in puke.

Georgie looked in the direction to where Honda had run off to. He then looked back down to the mess that he had just made, which caused him to throw up again.

Honda returned to the living room a few minutes later after he had washed his hands, where Jounouchi and Georgie were in the same spots that they had been in when he left.

Unfortunately, it turned out that his fish hadn't survived the journey to Georgie's stomach and back, so he was forced to discard of it by sending it on another adventure, this one being a ride on the porcelain express.

"I'm not cleaning that up," Jounouchi announced after he saw Honda enter the room.

"Georgie, you can't eat my fish!" Honda scolded angrily, not paying any attention to what Jounouchi had said. "Why did you do that?"

Georgie shrugged, which only made Honda more agitated.

"I said I'm not cleaning that up," Jounouchi said again.

Honda continued to ignore Jounouchi and picked up Georgie. He carried the child off to the crib in his room, mumbling something incoherently as he went. When he came back again, he frowned at the mess on the floor as if he hadn't noticed it until now.

"We gotta clean this up."

Jounouchi crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Honda. "Didn't you hear me? I said I'm not cleaning this up."

"Come on, Jou, you said you would help me out," Honda pleaded.

Jounouchi shook his head. "Uh-uh. I know I said I would help out, but I draw the line at baby puke!"

Honda sighed. "This is going to be a _long_ week," he muttered to himself for the second time that day as he trudged off to the kitchen to find a sponge and some carpet cleaner.

* * *

(A/N: Well, that's it for now. I hope it was enjoyable. Georgie's quite the little devil, isn't he? haha

I will post the next chapter next Friday, so make sure to watch for it. And in the mean time...REVIEW!!)


	3. Chapter 3

(A/N: Here's the deciding chapter. The plot comes in at the end, and if there are still people reading this fic, I will continue. I'll keep my fingers crossed.)

Disclaimer: I own no one.

Warnings: A short mention of our... "sensitive subject" at the end of the chapter

* * *

Chapter 3

"Do you think he's okay?"

"I don't know, he looks pretty dead to me…"

"That's not what I meant, Jounouchi-kun. But he doesn't usually fall asleep at this time of the day."

"Yeah, you're right. Hey, Honda! Wake up! You don't even have a shirt on!"

Honda was suddenly jolted awake as Jounouchi's hand was slapped across his bare back. He sat up and looked around, trying to remember where he was until his brain registered the rows of blue gym lockers and the uniforms that his three friends were dressed in at the moment. His eyes then shifted down to his own body, which as Jounouchi had said, lacked one gym shirt. Said gym shirt happened to be clutched tightly in the brunette's left hand, so he quickly pulled it over his head and stepped forward.

"Where is everyone?" Honda asked as he scanned the empty locker room before resting his eyes on Yuugi, Jounouchi, and Ryou to provide him with an answer.

"You fell asleep, Honda-kun," Yuugi replied. "And you didn't wake up until Jounouchi-kun hit you on the back."

"And I bet Karita's gonna be pissed off when we walk in late," Jounouchi added with a scowl. Gym was the only class that Jounouchi was undoubtedly passing, and the four boys knew that their gym teacher was enough of a jerk that he would lower all their grades for showing up late to class even once.

"Sorry, sorry," Honda apologized as he fought back a yawn. "Let's just go."

Luckily the boys hadn't been as late as they all thought and were able to sneak into their roll call lines just as Mr. Karita was about to start taking attendance. When all that was said and done, the class was divided into four teams of five and sent to assigned spots in the gym to play games of basketball. Honda and Yuugi ended up on the same team, but Jounouchi and Ryou were split up amongst the others.

"I'm glad you're on my team, Honda-kun," Yuugi whispered as they headed to their court. "Usually all the people on my team yell at me because I miss all the shots."

"Well, I'll make sure no one yells at you, but they better not expect much from me either," Honda said, letting out a long, drawn out yawn. "I can barely keep my eyes open."

The first game was played against the team that neither Jounouchi nor Ryou was on. And surprisingly enough, Honda was even able to make a few baskets despite the fact that he was about to fall over from exhaustion. But when the whistle was blown to rotate teams, the final score stood at ten to eight, with the opposing team in the lead.

"Hey, we almost won," Honda said hopefully to Yuugi, who was wearing a frown on his face.

"We probably would have tied if I didn't miss that last shot," the shorter teen replied, rubbing a hand along the side if his head and through his tri-colored hair. At the end of the game he had finally gotten the ball and attempted to make a shot. He ended up missing, but to make matters worse Mr. Karita blew the whistle at that exact moment, so Yuugi was distracted and didn't notice where the basketball was until it had bounced off his head.

The next game was a match between the two losing teams, so Honda wasn't surprised that they were facing Ryou's team as opposed to Jounouchi's. Ryou may have been one of the most intelligent people in the class, but when it came to sports the white-haired boy was at about the same skill level as Yuugi.

As soon as the game started, Honda noticed that Ryou had retreated to the spot directly under the basket. Obviously, he didn't feel like playing, but the brunette still found his behavior to be more than a little odd. Even though he wasn't exactly an athlete, Ryou always seemed to try at everything he did, whether he was good at it or not. But Honda didn't have much time to further ponder this thought as Yuugi threw him the basketball. He dribbled and shot, watching the ball spin around the rim twice before slowing and falling off.

Honda cursed under his breath as the other team took possession of the ball. It was passed around from one player to another before it was thrown straight to Ryou, who had made the mistake of moving out from under the basket and straight to the middle of the court, which was the best place to take a shot at the time. He stretched out his right arm, barely catching the ball, and stood there looking at it as if it were some sort of foreign object. Honda's best guess was that he was just shocked that he was actually passed to.

"Come on, Bakura! Shoot it!" yelled one of Ryou's team members. "Shoot!"

Looking extremely uncomfortable about his present predicament, Ryou lifted the ball up in his right hand. Still leaving his left arm hanging uselessly at his side, he shot the ball one-handed. Everyone watched as it flew a few feet forward before falling back to the court with a hollow bouncing sound, having missed the edge of the rim by at least a foot or two.

"What the hell!?" hissed one of the boy's on Ryou's team. "What kind of a shot was that?!"

"Must have broken his damn arm," the boy next to him mumbled back. "It's your fault for passing to him!"

Honda looked quizzically at Ryou as he returned to his previous spot where he would be out of the way. Honda wasn't fond of what the two kids had just said about his friend, but in all honesty he could hardly blame them for getting angry. Granted, Ryou wasn't the best basketball player, but everyone knew that you were supposed to make a shot like that with two hands. But he had kept his left arm pressed against his side as if he couldn't even pick it up.

The game started up again, so Honda's thoughts quickly returned to worrying about where the ball was and who had it rather than wondering why Ryou had acted so strangely. And now that he was concentrating on the game again, the last ten minutes of gym class went by fairly quickly, and before Honda knew it, Mr. Karita had blown his whistle once more and yelled out for all balls to be returned to the front of the room.

"We won! We won!" Yuugi cheered happily as he and Honda joined Jounouchi and Ryou to walk back to the locker room. Honda smiled down at his friend, knowing that the real reason Yuugi was so happy was not because their team had won the last game, but because Yuugi had finally been able to sink a basket in the last five minutes of play.

After changing back into their blue school uniforms, the four boys met up with Anzu in their next class: Math. Now that he was no longer moving around, Honda's eyelids slowly began to shut themselves as fatigue set in and attempted to drag him into unconsciousness. And their teacher wasn't exactly helping by rambling on in a monotone voice about logarithms and functions and who knows what else that Honda couldn't comprehend. He could pretty much understand it while he was awake, but it all sounded like jibberish to him now.

Surprisingly enough, Honda was able to go through the rest of the lecture without nodding off, but as soon as the bell rang he let his head fall to the desk and was instantly drawn into sleep. The rest of the group looked back at him in surprise, since his forehead had made a rather loud banging noise after making contact with the surface of the desk.

"Poor Honda-kun," Yuugi said with a frown. "He must be really sleepy."

"But why would he be so tired?" Ryou asked.

The answer to Ryou's question immediately came as Honda scrunched his eyebrows together and began mumbling softly in his sleep.

"No, Georgie…you can't eat that…"

"That's why," Jounouchi said after Honda had stopped muttering.

Ryou raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I understand, Jounouchi-kun…"

"Honda-kun has to babysit his nephew, Georgie," Yuugi explained. "And he's a little bit hard to handle."

"I'd say so," Ryou said slowly as he watched Honda's restless sleeping. "It seems like he won't even be able to wake up for our next class."

Jounouchi snickered. "That's fine with me," he said slyly. His eyes slowly drifted up from Honda to Anzu. "Hey, Anzu, you still got that magic marker?"

"Yeah," Anzu said. She walked over to her desk and returned a few seconds later with the black marker Jounouchi had inquired about. "But why do you-"

Before she could get another word out, Jounouchi had already snatched the marker from her hand and removed the cap. He took a step towards Honda, smiling uncontrollably.

"Wait a minute, Jounouchi-kun!" Yuugi cried out when he realized what his friend was about to do. "I don't think you should-"

"Shh!" Jounouchi hissed as he bent down and pressed the marker to Honda's face.

"Honda-kun isn't going to be very happy when he wakes up," Ryou warned, but Jounouchi only shrugged in response and continued on with his artwork.

After making a basic outline, Jounouchi leaned in until he was inches from Honda's face so he could finish the details of Honda's brand new mustache. But just as he was about to move on to drawing a pair of glasses, the brunette's eyes snapped open.

"AH!" they both yelled as Honda shot straight up in his chair and Jounouchi fell backwards into the desk behind him.

"God, Honda, you scared the _shit_ outta me!" Jounouchi gasped as he clutched his hand to his chest in an attempt to keep his heart from leaping out of it.

"Well same here!" Honda shouted back. "What the hell were you doing?!"

The two boys just sat there staring at each other for a minute. Jounouchi refused to provide Honda with an answer since he didn't exactly want to invoke his friend's rage by telling him the truth, and he could think of no other explanation for why Honda would have woken up nose to nose with him. Yuugi, Ryou, and Anzu also remained silent, not wanting to get involved in the mess Jounouchi had gotten himself into.

"Hey! Nice face, Honda!" someone yelled from across the room, and it was at that moment that Honda finally took notice of the little black marker that Jounouchi was holding in his right hand.

Honda's eye slightly twitched. "Jou…" he said slowly, using every fiber in his body not to pounce on the blonde before he heard some sort of excuse. "What's the marker for?"

Instinctively, Jounouchi hid the marker behind his back and attempted to smile innocently.

"For…drawing…"

"You didn't use it to draw on my _face_, did you, Jou?"

Jounouchi gulped. Once again he had no answer and Honda's voice was so calm that it was unnerving. He knew that the calmness was entirely fake, but that wasn't the problem. The real thing making him nervous was that he didn't know when Honda would drop the act and attack him. After waiting for a moment and getting no response, Honda turned to Yuugi, Ryou, and Anzu.

"Any of you guys got a mirror or something?"

Much to Jounouchi's dismay, Anzu walked over to her backpack and retrieved a small black hairbrush that unfolded to reveal a miniature mirror on the inside of the handle. Honda took it and his eye twitched again when he caught a glimpse of his reflection. Two thick black lines had been drawn in the space between his lip and nose with each side branching off into an uneven curlicue on each of his cheeks. In addition, his chin was covered with tiny black dots, which Honda assumed were supposed to be stubble. After he was done gaping in the mirror, he glared up at Jounouchi.

"Personally, I think it's a good look for you," Jounouchi said with a grin right before Anzu's brush came flying at his head. He was unable to duck out of the way in time, and the brush made contact with his forehead, right above the left eyebrow.

"This better wash off!" Honda growled at Jounouchi before running off to the restrooms to at least try and remove the unwanted ink.

"Owww…" Jounouchi moaned as he rubbed the spot where the brush had hit him. "You shouldn't have given him that brush, Anzu."

Anzu shrugged as she placed both the marker and hairbrush back into her desk. "Yeah, well, I probably shouldn't have given you the marker either," she replied.

* * *

"Man, Honda, you look like crap," Jounouchi announced as they were putting their indoor shoes back into their lockers after school had dismissed.

"Maybe I wouldn't if you didn't draw on my face," Honda snapped back as he slipped on his gym shoes. He had rushed to the bathrooms during every passing period in between classes, but there were still some dull remnants of the marker ink on his cheeks and chin that refused to wash away.

"You really don't sound like yourself today, Honda-kun," Yuugi observed as he slipped on his own shoes and slung his backpack onto his shoulder.

Honda sighed. "I know. I haven't gotten enough sleep in the past few days," he said to Yuugi. He then turned to Jounouchi. "And thanks for saying I look like crap when it's your fault."

The blonde laughed. "I wasn't talking about the marker. I meant that you look like you need to relax. Why don't we go hang out at the arcade or something? It'll make you less crabby."

Honda shook his head. "Can't. It's Georgie's last night, so I still have to watch him."

"Then find a babysitter or something," Jounouchi suggested. "You need a rest."

Honda raised an eyebrow at his friend. "And where am I supposed to find a babysitter in less than five minutes?"

Jounouchi scratched his head. "I don't know. Just find someone. Come on, Honda, I don't feel like going home yet and Anzu already said that she wouldn't go within ten feet of the kid."

"I'll do it."

Both boys turned to gape at the person who had just spoken.

"What's wrong?" Ryou asked after a few seconds when Honda and Jounouchi continued to stare at him incredulously with their mouths hanging slightly open.

"Are you serious, Ryou?" Honda asked skeptically. Ryou wasn't one to play cruel jokes, but the offer sounded too good to be true.

Ryou smiled and nodded. "Of course, Honda-kun. Jounouchi-kun is right, you need some rest."

Honda and Jounouchi exchanged dumbfounded looks before staring at Ryou again in silence. Ryou still didn't know why they were so shocked and he blushed slightly when neither Honda nor Jounouchi moved or spoke and the silence had become overwhelmingly awkward. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Jounouchi decided it was his turn to speak.

"I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into, Ryou," Jounouchi warned. "This isn't some ordinary kid we're talkin' about."

"Knock it off," Honda said, elbowing Jounouchi in the side. "You make him sound like he's not human."

"He ate your fish!"

Honda narrowed his eyes at Jounouchi. First he tells him to find a babysitter, but when someone actually volunteers he tries to scare them off. He turned to Ryou with a tiny glimmer of hope in his eyes, praying that he was still willing to take on the task.

"You don't have to, Ryou. It'd just be nice to rest for even a couple of hours," Honda said, trying his best not to sound desperate while at the same time putting Ryou in a position in which he would feel guilty if he backed down. And since it _was_ Ryou, he most likely would feel guilty now that he had already volunteered.

Ryou smiled again and Honda's anticipation began to grow. Maybe Ryou actually would take on the job of watching his nephew, which would be more than a tremendous load off his shoulders. He could practically see himself playing the pinball machines! When Ryou opened his mouth to voice his decision, Honda unconsciously held his breath to await the answer.

"I'm sure he can't be as bad as Jounouchi-kun says," Ryou replied. "I should be able to watch him for a few hours."

A giant smile beamed from Honda's face and he had to restrain himself from shouting in excitement. It was set. Georgie would be in Ryou's hands for the next three or four hours! But just to be polite, he decided to reconfirm the arrangements.

"You sure?" he asked. If it was anyone else, except maybe Yuugi, he would have been afraid to give them room for second thoughts. But he figured that with Ryou it was safe enough.

Ryou nodded and it was at this point Jounouchi decided to butt into the conversation again.

"Are you _really_ sure? I mean really really truly absolutely positively posit- ow!" he yelled as his attempt to scare Ryou off was cut short with Honda once again jabbing his elbow into the blonde's side.

Ryou laughed. "Yes, Jounouchi-kun. Positively positive."

"Okay, I'll meet you down at the arcade in a half hour," Honda called to Jounouchi as he practically pushed Ryou out the doorway.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to go home first and change out of your school uniform?" Honda asked as they reached the door to his apartment and he slid the key into the brass doorknob. "Last chance."

Ryou shook his head. "No thanks. Besides, the sooner you get to the arcade, the longer you can relax," he pointed out.

"Suit yourself," Honda said with a shrug as he pushed the door open and stepped inside. The apartment had managed to stay a bit cleaner than the first day that Georgie had arrived, though there were still a few miscellaneous toys and articles of clothing laying in random spots throughout the living room and bedrooms. But Honda figured that Ryou would be able to deal with that. And as long as there were no toy cars for him to fall on the only thing he would have to be concerned with was handling the disobedient little toddler.

"Hiroto! Thank goodness you're home. I have to get to work!" Honda's mother said hurriedly as she quickly sped past the two boys, who were only able to catch a quick glimpse of her short brown hair as she rushed out the door.

"You should have told me that your mother was waiting for you," Ryou said as he set his book bag next to the door and removed his gym shoes. "Then we wouldn't have wasted so much time at school."

"Nah, she's not that late," Honda assured him as he closed the door. "She just likes to worry."

Both boys turned to the living room as they heard the tiny shuffle of feet coming towards them.

"You're late, Hiroto!" Georgie said loudly, pointing an accusing finger straight at his uncle. "Now baachan is gonna be late for work!"

"Baachan isn't going to be late for work," Honda said as an irritated expression appeared on his face. "And she wasn't late to work yesterday, or the day before that."

"You were bad for making baachan wait," Georgie said, folding his short arms across his chest. "So I threw your toothbrush in the toilet!"

Honda gritted his teeth. "And I thought baachan was supposed to be watching you," he muttered to himself as he walked off to the bathroom. Sure enough, his toothbrush was submerged in the bowl of toilet water.

After disposing of his toothbrush and washing his hands, Honda returned to the living room, where it appeared as if Georgie had first noticed Ryou's presence in the apartment.

"Hello, new person," Georgie said as he stared up at Ryou.

"Georgie, that's rude," Honda said, his patience growing thinner and thinner with each passing moment. "This is Ryou. He's going to babysit you for a little while."

Georgie stared blankly at Honda for a few seconds before turning back to Ryou.

"Okay, new person. Hiroto says you have to babysit me," he announced as if Ryou hadn't heard Honda despite the fact that he had been standing no more than two feet away.

Ryou laughed. "Yes, Honda-kun already told me," he said as he bent over slightly to be more at the child's level.

Honda raised an eyebrow at his friend. It seemed like Ryou had thought Georgie was…_cute_? In Honda's opinion, he found the kid to be a lot more aggravating than cute, but maybe this meant that Ryou wouldn't end up going crazy before the night was over.

Ryou straightened up again and turned to Honda. "Is there anything I need to know before you leave, Honda-kun?"

Honda thought for a minute. Actually, there were a lot of things he could have told Ryou: don't let Georgie eat anything that isn't edible, touch the TV, computer, microwave, stove, toilet, sink, bathtub, or anything in Honda's room, give him crayons, markers, or anything else that could be used to draw on the walls and couches…the list went on and on. But instead of beginning a rambling, two hour lecture, he decided that he could basically sum it up in one sentence.

"Just don't take your eyes off him for a second," Honda said, and Ryou nodded. The thought of warning Ryou about Georgie's tendency to repeat everything he heard briefly crossed his mind, but he eventually decided against it. He had never heard Ryou curse before, nor could he even imagine it.

Before he left, Honda made a quick stop in his room to change into something more comfortable. He frowned when he entered, remembering that he hadn't really had much of a chance to clean it since Georgie had been there. His eyes wandered to the back of the room where a few separate piles of clothes were lined up in the corner, though Honda wasn't sure which ones were clean and which ones weren't. After sifting through two of the piles, he finally settled on a plain white shirt. In the last pile he was able to find a pair of jeans that looked wearable enough and as an added bonus, there was even some money that had been left in the pockets.

Honda grabbed a little more money from his dresser and shoved that into his pockets as well. It seemed as if that was all he needed, so he picked up his black jacket that was lying in a crumpled heap at the foot of his bed and headed back into the living room. Ryou was now sitting on the couch and Georgie was picking through some of his toys, most likely preparing to drag Ryou into some sort of game.

"Good luck," Honda said as he walked out the door and shut it behind him. As he heard the lock softly click shut, a smile slowly spread across his face.

For the next few hours, Georgie was no longer his problem!

* * *

At exactly 8:07 PM, Honda reached the door to his apartment feeling much more relaxed than he had been when he had left. He had actually told Ryou that he would be back around seven thirty or so, but he only felt slightly guilty for staying out an extra half hour. Besides, he had used that time to quickly run over to the store and buy himself another toothbrush, which was an errand he hadn't planned on in the first place.

"Welcome home, Honda-kun," Ryou said cheerfully as Honda entered the apartment.

The brunette let out a silent sigh of relief. If Ryou was still smiling than nothing must have gone wrong. But the biggest shock came as Honda took notice of the room around him, which caused his mouth to drop open.

The entire living room was completely clean! No toys littered the floor, there was no toddler clothing laying all over the place, and all the little throw pillows that matched the couches were actually _on_ the couches like they were supposed to be. Even the sticky jelly handprint that had marked the bookshelf for the past three days had disappeared!

"Wow," Honda breathed as he looked on in awe at his surroundings. If Ryou wasn't standing right in front of him, he would have thought that he had accidentally walked into the wrong apartment. "I'm gonna have to pay you double…"

"Oh, no, Honda-kun, you don't have to pay me anything!" Ryou said quickly.

"Not only did you keep Georgie from destroying the whole place, but you cleaned it up," Honda said when his shock had subsided. "You didn't need to do that, you know."

"Gomen, Honda-kun," Ryou said softly as a slight blush began to spread across his pale cheeks. "I just-"

"Don't apologize," Honda said, wondering if Ryou had done any more unexpected cleaning throughout the apartment. "Actually, this gets rid of a lot of work for me."

"Well, after I fixed Georgie some dinner-" Ryou started.

"Oh crap!" Honda interrupted again. "I didn't even think about Georgie's dinner!"

"He said he was hungry around six o'clock, so I fed him then," Ryou explained. "But after that he took a little nap, so I decided to clean up a bit."

Honda's mouth dropped open. "You got him to take a nap?!" he practically yelled, causing Ryou to slightly shrink back.

"Gomen, Honda-kun. Is that bad?" he asked meekly.

"That's great!" Honda corrected, suddenly regretting that he hadn't asked Ryou to babysit sooner. "No one can get him to take a nap except neesan."

"Oh, well I didn't really do anything. I put on a video for him and he fell asleep on the couch."

Honda began to laugh. "And I was afraid that he might have destroyed the house when I came back," he said as he reached into his jacket and pulled out all the money that remained after his trip to the arcade. He held the money out to Ryou. "Here. This is all I have left, even though you should probably get a lot more."

"You really don't have to give me any money, Honda-kun," Ryou said, suddenly looking slightly uncomfortable. "I just wanted to help."

"Take it," Honda insisted. "I'd feel bad if you didn't."

Ryou looked at the money for a minute, but finally reached out his hand and took it.

"Arigatou," he said as he slid the money into his pocket. He then took a quick glance at his watch. "I should probably get going."

"Thanks again," Honda said as Ryou slipped on his gym shoes and picked up his book bag.

"Sure. I was glad to help," Ryou said with a smile as he took a step out into the hallway. "See you at school tomorrow."

Honda sighed as he laid down on the couch. Since Ryou had cleaned up all of Georgie's stuff, there was nothing else that needed to be done. Maybe he could follow Georgie's example and take a short nap before his sister came.

"Hiroto, where's Ryou?" Honda heard Georgie ask as soon as he had closed his eyes. Honda groaned and sat up. Apparently he wouldn't get to take that nap after all.

"He went home," Honda answered, propping himself up against the arm of the couch.

"Nooooooooooooooo!!!" Georgie whined, stamping his foot against the carpet. "Ryou is my best friend!"

Honda rolled his eyes. "Georgie, you've only known him for four hours."

"He's still my best friend! He's much more fun than you, Hiroto!"

"Oh, really?" Honda asked. "Well what did Ryou do that makes him so much more fun than me?" Honda didn't truly know why he was attempting to have a conversation with his nephew, but considering that his sister would be coming to pick him up in less than thirty minutes, he had to find some way to pass the time.

"We played with my toys and he read me a story and he watched a video with me," Georgie said defiantly, folding his arms and sticking his chin up in the air. "And the food he made me was really yummy."

"Well, you never ask me to read you a story," Honda pointed out, though he had a fairly good idea why. Georgie had once put a book on his lap while he was watching TV and asked Honda to read it to him. He was in the middle of a movie at the time, so he picked up the book, said, "Once upon a time," then flipped to the back of the book and said, "The End," right before throwing the book over his shoulder and going back to watching his movie.

"He read me a good story. It was about a cat," Georgie said, and then randomly added, "Ryou has a cat."

"No he doesn't," Honda responded with a yawn. He didn't really think much about the statement, since Georgie had a habit of making things up for no good reason.

"Yes he does!" Georgie argued, folding his arms even tighter across his chest. "He has a cat. He told me. His cat scratched him."

"I'm sure Ryou didn't tell you that he has a cat because he doesn't have a cat, Georgie," Honda insisted before yawning again. He was tired of Georgie's made-up stories and was more interested in finding the remote so he could see what was on TV.

"Yes he does, Hiroto!" Georgie screeched. He had now unfolded his arms and had his hands balled into two frustrated little fists. "Ryou has a cat and his cat scratched him!"

"Calm down," Honda said. He had no idea why Georgie was being so defensive about his story. "And why would you keep saying that his cat scratched him?"

"Because it did. I saw the scratches," Georgie said.

Honda looked down at Georgie without the slightest bit of amusement in his expression. This had to end now.

"Georgie, knock it off," Honda said firmly. "I don't know why you're saying this stuff, but Ryou doesn't have a cat. And the cat didn't scratch him. Stop lying"

"I'm not lying!" Georgie yelled, clenching his fists even tighter. "His cat scratched him! I saw it! It scratched him on his arm! Right here!" he screamed out, and Honda's eyes widened as Georgie pointed a chubby finger directly at his left wrist.

* * *

(A/N: Well, there you have it. Yes, it's a sensitive subject, but I still hope that any hesitant people decide to keep reading. So depending on how many people read and review this chapter, I will decide if I write more.) 


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